In 173 gastric cancer patients, activities of Concanavalin‐A‐induced suppressor cells (Con‐AS) and spontaneous suppressor cells (SpS) in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), splenic vein lymphocytes (SVL), and spleen cells (SCs) were investigated. Suppressions by Con‐AS in PBL were significantly effective in patients of Stages III and IV, while suppressions by SpS were effective in patients with recurrent tumors. Thus, in PBLs of cancer patients, suppressor precursors, which are considered to be activated in vitro by Concanavalin‐A, seemed to appear with the advances of the disease, and SpS activities, which could be already activated in vivo, seemed to increase in the terminal stage. In SCs, increased activities of Con‐AS, but normal activities of SpS, were observed, and these suppressor‐cell populations consisted of glass nonadherent cells. Suppressor activities of SCs would be due to suppressor T‐cells, not to other types of cells. Furthermore, Con‐AS existed in the medium‐sized lymphocytes, which were fractionated on the basis of cell size, while SpS in the large‐sized lymphocytes. A higher proportion of T‐cells, bearing Fc receptors for IgG, was observed in the larger‐sized lymphocyte fractions. Cell numbers in the large‐sized lymphocyte fraction tended to increase with the advances of tumors. From these results, it is suggested that higher presence of suppressor precursors and the increase of SpS activities may occur in cancer patients, depending on the tumor advancing.
In 501 Japanese patients with gastric cancer, the relationships between preoperative lymphocyte proliferative (LP) responses to mitogens and prognosis of patients were evaluated. Peripheral blood lymphocytes were cultured in the presence of either autologous or allogeneic serum and their LP responses to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and pokeweed mitogen were investigated. An apparent inverse relationship between LP responses and stage of the disease was found in LP responses to PHA in the presence of autologous serum. The survival rate of patients with higher responses was significantly greater than those with lower responses, when LP responses to PHA in the presence of autologous serum served as the criterion. Probabilities of staging which were computed on the basis of LP response to PHA affirmed the reciprocal relationship between LP responses and stage of the disease. From these results, it is concluded that evaluation of LP responses may be a valuable tool in the assessment of the clinical stage and in the prediction of prognosis.
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